EXTRACTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 268, 20 March 1873, Page 5

EXTRACTS.

This is the manner in which a Californian shipping reporter notes the arrival of two or throe coasters .* — " The commerce of Sacramento is developing to unprecede ited proportions, On one day this week, three schooners from the port of San Francisco and two scoros from Marysville arrived, imparting to the water front an air of unwonted bustle and activity The roar of traffic, the crashing of loaded teams, the cries of their excited drivers, the screams of struggling horses, mingling with frenzied shrieks of the steam whistle, swept in widening circles from the busy city till they broke in lmarse murmurs upon the slopes of the distant Sierras, and the blue foothills of of the Coast Range." To this is appended a footnote by the editor, with the following terse remark: — "Dvunk again- — ISd." Tha American Government, says the " Pall Mall Gazette," may point with pride to the success of the new Indian policy which has been in force nearly two years. The Indians have begun- to work on the reserves secured to them by the Government, and have made greater advances in civilization than could have been supposed possible in the time. The White Earth reserve, where the soil is adapted- for farming, supports about 1000 Indians. Many have cast aside- their blankets and out their hair. Over 100 houses are building or built, in which a large part of the work is done- by tho Indians. This year they had on that 'one reserve 140 acres of wheat and many more nf potatoes and garden, products ; they have 250/ head" of cattle, besides horses and hogs ; there is a saw-mill cutting from 15,000 to 20,000 feet of lumber daily, run by a doswn ludians under the direction of one white man ; two lino buildings accommodate a boarding-school with seventy scholars and four teachers ; ami in a comfortable chapel built by tho Episcopalians, & Chippewa preacher gathers every Sunday a congregation of sixty to a hundred. " One has only to see," says an eye-witness, the "conscious pride with which, ineu. who, a year ago, were worth-

less savages, drive their oxen, and p"ii t to their gardens and houses, to ■><■ convinced of the strong hold the new life h.is upon them," There are no complete mortality records of the population <<n th^ reserves, bv.t it is believed that the Indians are not now decreasing in numbers, in spite of a circumstance which makes their advance in civilization a matter or great moment, the prevalence of pulmonI arv consumption among the women, owing to the heavy burdens they cai-ry on their backs. Householders who are anxious to economize their coal will do well to try a plan suggested by a correspondent of the Edinburgh " Courant," which, assuming it to prove effectual, should at once practically reduce coals to a third of their pre sent price. Locking over an old volume, he says he found the following valuable piece of information: — "By expending one penny you can render one ton of coals equal to three tons. One pennyworth of tai-wuter will saturate a tub of coals with treble its original quantity of bitumen, the principle course of their heat and light, and of course render one such tub _of three times more value than when it was unsatnrated." Italy of late supplies a valuable contribution to the capital punishment cqmroversy. The Italian Government, partly from considerations £>i- the prejudices ot gome of the recently annexed provinces where the death penalty had been abolished, and partly from the mistake very widely spread at the preaent time that civilisation is attested not by the diminution of crime but by mildness of punishment, has ceased in nearly every case to inflict the extven.e penalty of the law. The consequence is an extreme prevalence of the crime of murder ; messieurs les assassins have nut followed the amicable lead of tho law, and the lives of honest folk are taken with a frequency that is in pretty exact proportion to the security that is enjoyed by the murderers. The fact is the fifth and sixth commandments have been pleasantly jumbled togethor in Italy. They certainly say there *' Thou shalt do no murder," but they add "if thou dost, thy days shall Le long — whosever else's life is taken thine shall not be." This, combined with unsatisfactory discipline in gaols, and tolerably facile chances of escape, ha^. rather unsettled s.-.ciety. The part of Italy from which we get the latest evidence on ihe point is the former Exarchate of Ravenna. A letter in the "Pall Mall Gazette," dated from Florence, states :—: — " The assassination of a, police inspector who has. had the fatal courage to inquire a little too closely into these mysterious societies, followed by tho murder of a judge who had ventured to pronounce condemnation on a member of one of them, and that of a lieutenant-general who tried to suppress them by force of anns > have spread such a panic throughout the country that it has become difficult, not to say impossible, to find carabineers or policemen willing to perform their duty conscientiously ; victims, or the relations of victims, courageous enough to denounce the perpetrators of a crime, or even to give evidence against them ; lawyers to prosecute, or judges to sentence. .jfs for finding a £ury capable of delivering a verdict of guilty, thac is of course not to be thought of." Now, what wa would point out here is how efficacious capital punishment is Bhown to be. It is true that it is inflicted c-nly by the as3asbina, but how completely it. affects their purpose. It " has spread such a panic/ the. correspondent of the "Pell Mcli Gazette" says. Surely then society should not part with tha means of establishing 4< a panic "in its turn. It is puerile weakness to ignore the facts of life hecause they are not to our taste, and one of tho best established is the efficacy of the death penalty in the repression of crime. — " Australasian. " In view of the groafe rise in ths price of the necessaries of life, several of the banks in Edinburgh have presented gratnities to their employed. The Royal Bank have given 15 per cent, on their salaries to their staff ; and the Clydesdale Bank and the Bank of Scotland have also given bonuses to a considerable amouiit, The Civil Tribunal of St. Petersburgh has just been occupied ia tryiDg Prince Michel de Lusi^nan, of Greek origin/ on a charge of having endeavoured to negotiate some forged bills on the Russian Bank of Discount. Amongst the witnesses called was the father of the prisoner, who was formerly an officer in the Russiau Hnssars. He declared that he was of Royal blood, descending direct from the Kingg of Cyprus and Jerusalem, and that he had received from his father a heritage of forty millions of roubles, but of which fortune hef was deprived at- Constantinople in 1828. The. presideut of the court stated that the documents put ia as evidence fully corroborated that assertion. The testimony went to showthat the"accuse:l and his father weresometimes ranch distressed in means, and that this youns: man had been enticed into committing- the offence. The court found him guilty aad condemned " Prince Michel da Lusignan, bearing the title of Kin^ of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia," to- transportation to the province- of Yeulaseisk. A most wonderful instance of reanimation has been exciting the attentiooJof the people of Quebec Cry. The " Mercury" Bays: — " A young Lady of this city— Mdle B c, 16, who was on the point ot being married — was lately seized with a severe attack of typhoid fever, and ob- Tuesday evenias; sank so low as to have been considered del. According to custom^ tiie room was put m funeral order, and. the undertaker was sent for, when, lo! just as he wa» drawing his measure from hia pocket to- calculate the length of her coffin, to bis utter amazement the suppose dead girl sat up erect, iv ia her bed- With great prtsonce of miud he threw a. handkerchief over her eyes to- prevent her seeing /the change her bedroom had uudor^orto til! the parents removed the extra litrhts and hangings around; soou afterwards thp girl asked for fond of which s;ie partook more heartily than • before, a-ist. she is since doiug welL"